Richelieu Motor Car Corporation

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Richelieu Motor Car Corporation
Advance Motors Corporation
legal form Corporation
founding 1921
resolution 1923
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Asbury Park , Monmouth County , New Jersey , USA
management NG Rost
Salvatore Barbarino
Buell Alvord
Walter L. Adams
Branch Automobile manufacturer

The Richelieu Motor Car Corporation is a former American automobile manufacturer who built a luxury automobile from 1922 to 1923.

Company history

Richelieu advertisement, ca.1922
Richelieu T-85 Sport Touring, probably with Fleetwood body (1922)
Richelieu T-85 Touring, probably with Fleetwood body (1922)

The company was founded by former employees of the Duesenberg Motors Corporation (DMC), which mainly built aircraft engines in Elizabeth and Poughkeepsie (New York) during the First World War . As a result, the rights to the large volume Duesenberg- reached four-cylinder engine walking beam to the Rochester Motors Company, Inc . Richelieu was one of the customers who used these engines called Rochester-Duesenberg . Senior managers of Rochester were represented on the board and it seems that the engine manufacturer has tried to boost about this carmaker sales of its engines. Richelieu was the youngest and last manufacturer to bring automobiles with such engines onto the market.

The President of Richelieu Motor Car Corporation was former DMC sales manager NG Rost , Vice President William Beckman , Fred Duesenberg's former assistant at DMC. The other board of directors consisted of bankers and investors. It was founded in October 1921 and the only model Richelieu T-85 was presented at the New York Motor Show at the end of November of the same year. It appears that one of the financiers was Newton Van Zandt , who previously ran Revere Motor Car Corporation and Duesenberg Automobile & Motors Corporation with little success and often dubious methods . ReVere was a competitor that also used Duesenberg engines. It cannot be ruled out that Van Zandt secretly brought a ReVere to Asbury Park and used it there as a blueprint for the T-85 without Revere's knowledge .

The T-85 was initially only available as a four-door touring with a body from Fleetwood . The design was sporty and European. The wheelbase was 3327 mm (131 inches). With the nickel-plated radiator bezel rounded at the top, the Richelieu was reminiscent of large Fiat models. It had narrow-cut fenders and no continuous running board. Instead, there was a nickel-plated step to each of the four doors. Wire-spoke wheels , large, drum-shaped headlights and a horizontally split windshield completed the equipment. The 85 bhp (63.4 kW) offered more than sufficient power for its time; the racing version from which it was derived had 100 bhp (74.6 kW).

However, the asking price of US $ 3950.00 for the four-seater was considerable: The Richelieu was a luxury car and more expensive than the established competition, e.g. B. from Peerless or Packard .

For 1923 there were more body styles, all again produced by Fleetwood . A two-seater roadster was added to the Touring for US $ 4,200 each, and a seven-seater sedan was also new for US $ 6000. According to a source, after ongoing financial difficulties , Richelieu was taken over by a local bodybuilder, the United Body Company in Rahway, New Jersey, which also supplied the final bodywork. As one of the suppliers of Locomobile factory bodies and with custom-made products for various European brands ( Mercedes , Renault , Rolls-Royce ), United Body had experience in the market for luxury automobiles. It soon became apparent that Richelieu was not strong enough to survive the economic crisis that hit in the early 1920s . In February 1923, the company had to disclose its figures. Debts of US $ 46,851.00 were set against values ​​of US $ 2723.00. Not much is known about United Body . The company appears to have existed in Poughkeepsie, New York , until the early 1930s .

Advance Motors Corporation

A group of business people around the designer Salvatore Barbarino acquired machines and systems from the insolvent Richelieu Motor Car Corporation and from them organized the Advance Motors Corporation based in Stamford (Connecticut) in autumn 1923 . The plan was to produce a light and luxurious sports car that Barbarino had designed and which was to be built in large numbers under this name. The vehicle was significantly smaller than the Richelieu with a wheelbase of 110 inches (2794 mm). It received a revised four-cylinder engine from LeRoi and innovative four-wheel brakes that were operated via cables.

There was a dispute among investors. Advanced Motors was banned from issuing additional shares until the end of 1923. In 1924 the company was reorganized as Barbarino Motor Car Corporation based in Port Jefferson (New York) without Salvatore Barbarino. Buell Alvord and Walter L. Adams were presidents of this society in quick succession .

Less than ten Barbarino automobiles were produced until the new and final bankruptcy in 1925. Neither Stamford nor Port Jefferson is named as the production location, but Brooklyn.

Salvatore Barbarino later ran an auto repair shop in Brooklyn.

Car manufacturer with Rochester-Duesenberg engine

Roamer Model D4 Touring with Rochester-Duesenberg four-cylinder (1920)

Until well into the 1920s, Rochester sold these engines as Rochester-Duesenberg to a number of small and exclusive automobile manufacturers:

Mentioned but cannot be proven beyond doubt:

A surviving vehicle, which in older literature erroneously was the Biddle brand ( Philadelphia , Pennsylvania; 1915-1922). is now seen as Argonne .

literature

Web links

Commons : Richelieu Motor Car Corporation  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 1289 (Richelieu).
  2. ^ Roe: Duesenberg - The Pursuit of Perfection. 1982, p. 70.
  3. ↑ hemmings.com: ReVere's Ride.
  4. ^ Coachbuilt: Fleetwood.
  5. ^ Coachbuilt: United Body.
  6. ↑ Coach Built: HR Chupurdy & Company.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, pp 104-105 (Barbarino).
  8. ^ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1805-1942. 1996, pp. 62-63 (Argonne).
  9. ↑ a b Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, pp. 1344-1345 (Shaw / Hertz).
  10. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 355 (Colonial / Hertz).
  11. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 803 (Kenworthy).
  12. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 966 (Meteor).
  13. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, pp. 1245-1246 (Premocar).
  14. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, pp. 1286-1287 (ReVere).
  15. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, pp. 1297-1299 (Roamer).
  16. ↑ a b c Roe: Duesenberg - The Pursuit of Perfection. 1982, pp. 63-66.
  17. ^ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 1564 (Wolverine).
  18. ^ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 961 (Mercury).
  19. ^ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1805-1942. 1996, p. 1344 (Shad-Wyck).
  20. ^ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1805-1942. 1996, pp. 124-125 (Biddle).